Tuesday, July 8, 2014

The input that matters most

Sent to the Wall Street Journal, July 8, 2014

Joshua Lipshutz ("The legal road map to better schools," July 8) points out that "...the easiest inputs to measure are not necessarily those that matter most to student learning." Vergara judge used one that doesn't matter: Teacher quality as measured by gains on standardized tests. A number of studies have shown that rating teachers using test score gains does not give consistent results. Different tests produce different ratings, and the same teacher’s ratings can vary from year to year, sometimes quite a bit. Also, using test score gains for evaluation encourages gaming the system, trying to produce increases in scores by teaching test-taking strategies, not by encouraging real learning. An input that matters a lot is poverty, which has a huge impact on educational success. Twenty-three percent of American children live in poverty, the second highest among all economically advanced countries. When researchers control for the effects of poverty, American test scores are at the top of the world. This means that poverty is the problem, not teacher quality. Instead of denying teachers due process based on bogus measures of quality, let's protect children from the impact of poverty. Poverty means food deprivation, lack of health care, and little access to books. The best teaching in the world will have little effect when children are hungry, undernourished and ill. When children have no chance to read on their own, the literacy development will be very limited. Our focus should be improved food programs, health care and libraries. Stephen KrashenProfessor EmeritusUniversity of Southern California